State GOP keeps tea party’s 2010 platform

AUGUSTA — Ron Paul supporters have decided to keep the 2010 Republican Party platform in place, which means references to Austrian economics and resistance to a “one world government” will be the party’s official guiding document for two more years.

Platform Chairman John Frary, who spent months leading a group designed to find consensus on a new platform, said today that Paul supporters who stayed until the end of the convention Sunday night rejected the new document and kept the one put in place in 2010 by tea party supporters.

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“They voted for the 2010 platform, so now we once again have Austrian economics,” Frary said.

The new platform that was rejected included several paragraphs that highlighted Republican legislative accomplishments and goals achieved by Gov. Paul LePage, including tax cuts and reduced regulations. Frary said after the 2010 tea party surprise at the convention, the party was careful to include a diverse group of Republicans on the platform committee this time around.

“The platform committee contained all flavors of Republicans, from tapioca to Tabasco sauce,” he said.

Yet following a weekend of high tension when Ron Paul supporters took control of the convention and elected most of the delegates, many people had left by the time the platform was presented. The original agenda called for it to be voted on Saturday morning, but delays over procedure and a change of agenda by the convention chairman pushed it to near last on the agenda Sunday night.

The 2010 platform, which will remain in place until the next convention in 2014, calls for the rejection of the UN Treaty on Rights of the Child, Congressional term limits, and the elimination of the Department of Education.

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